Daniel Ricciardo has pinpointed high-speed cornering as the main weakness upon which RB can improve with its 2024 Formula 1 car going into the remaining rounds.
Ricciardo’s uptick in results continued at Spa-Francorchamps as he headed RB’s charge to cross the line in 11th and inherit a point once George Russell was excluded.
The Australian, who started down in 13th, managed to claw through the pack as RB elected to trigger an undercut on the cars ahead at the respective pit stop phases.
However, Fernando Alonso’s reversion to a one-stop and Esteban Ocon’s late overtake down the Kemmel Straight demoted Ricciardo to outside the top 10 on the road.
“Yeah, it was hard because I knew some cars were going to try a one-stop,” Ricciardo acknowledged.
“So it was, I didn’t really know my position during the race and I knew it would kind of all work out and in my head I was kind of saying, yeah, pace is strong.
“I know there’s some kind of quick cars not too far ahead. So I really thought we would have ended up in the points.
“So when I had Ocon behind me, I think that’s when I knew I was 10th and I was like, oh, I really thought I was maybe ninth because I knew that holding him off was going to be tricky.
“I think he was strong all weekend and also he just came out on a fresher tyre. So obviously, you try and say, all right, let’s fight. But I knew it was going to be tricky.
“I tried to stay with him, but yeah, it was a shame.
“But look, I’ll put it this way: I think we had a really good race. I just think some other drivers also had a really good race and that’s that.”
Ricciardo was the sole driver on the grid to line up on the Soft compound, but he has denied that going with the red-walled rubber hampered his prospects in the race.
“I was very surprised we were the only one,” he conceded. “I think I was the only one.
“I think it obviously stopped us from maybe attempting a one-stop, but I was able to stay with the guys on Mediums in the first stint.
“So for the two-stop, it probably didn’t change too much in the end. So yeah, I felt like every time we pitted, I think we were able to undercut a car and get a bit of track position and hold it.
“So yeah, look, we started 13th. We moved, we got a couple of positions up. So I think we did have a good race. We did move forward.”
RB has taken a step backwards relative to the competition since introducing a sizeable upgrade package in Spain that didn’t produce the results the team anticipated.
But while the Faenza-based camp was in more competitive shape last weekend, Ricciardo is adamant that the side’s VCARB 01 car is still losing out in the high speed.
“I still feel like our strengths are in a little bit more the lower speed stuff and our weaknesses are a bit more in the real quick stuff,” he explained.
“So even Turn 10 during the race, I was like, especially, you know, when the team’s all right, we’re going to the end and tyres look fine.
“So at that point, you’re pretty much flat out till the end. Even then, I felt like Ocon with lower downforce, because they were quite quick in the straight, I’m assuming their lower downforce.
“He was still pretty quick in [Turn] 10. And so yeah, I think real, real high speed, we still got to work on a bit. But all the kind of tighter, twistier stuff, we seem to be all right.
“So yeah, probably same characteristics. Just now load and yeah, load is our friend. So maybe I put on some weight over the break and that’ll help!”
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